New African articles from July 2008

New African archives from July 2008

Western media and Africa.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I had not read New African till about four months ago when I was posted to The Gambia on business duty. In fact, if I have my own way, I would translate this must-read magazine into a textbook for all African senior high schools. The...

Continued global dominance.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Clayton Goodwin's "Bad reporting on fertile soil" (NA June) ruined for me what after all was exceptional exposure of Western bias in reporting Africa. I disagree with his assessment that Africans and Europeans do not interact enough. The...

Thank you, and thank you again.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Thank you New African for your incisive journalism. Your last issue on the Western media coverage of Africa was super. We are so proud of your publication which has provided us with a forum to rub minds in the true spirit of African...

Time to stop blaming others.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Having read your cover story on the Western media coverage of Africa, I can say I entirely agree with Baffour Ankomah's position. However, it's nothing ground breaking. What I don't understand is why the Western media should even care to...

Correction.(Correction notice)
July 1, 2008... In my piece published in the June issue of New African, "Blame everything bad on immigrants", I discovered a mistake pertaining to the death of Pim Fortuyn. He was shot dead in Hilversum and not knifed to death in Amsterdam. I confused him with...

Dutch response.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I refer to your article, "Blame everything bad on immigrants" (NA June). Your journalist Femi Akomolafe incorrectly accuses the deceased Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn of having made an Islamophobic movie and being knifed to death as a result....

Yellow journalism?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I lived in Kenya for five years as a young adult, and later in Cote d'Ivoire with my own young family. My youngest son was born in Abidjan. When I returned to university in my home country of the Netherlands (Holland is not a country, but a...

'We are so sorry'.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... This is to add my voice to the chorus by concerned South Africans against the xenophobic attacks recently witnessed in our country. We are saddened and embarrassed by the acts of a minority who went berserk in our name. [ILLUSTRATION...

Show the world the other side of Africa.(Media/Africa)
July 1, 2008... If there is another Africa then let us see it." This was the response I got from Nora, an Irish friend, when I handed her a copy of the June issue of New African which gave an extensive description of how negatively most Western media portray...

Foxing out Obama?(Fox News, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... After Senator Obama won the Democratic Party nomination, he and his wife, Michelle, gave each other a "pound" (above) in front of the cameras. Fox News anchor E. D. Hill called the act of celebration (a greeting where fists are touched...

A national disgrace!(South Africa)(Essay)
July 1, 2008... Since some black South Africans decided in May to attack black African immigrants living among them, killing 65 of them in Johannesburg and elsewhere, several commentators have rationalised, in fact found excuses for that shameful behaviour,...

Who will save South Africa? The South Africans who are attacking other Africans should ask themselves: "What would Africans whose enormous contributions helped to free South Africa from apartheid, feel, if they could hear that South Africans were now killing fellow Africans?", writes Cameron Duodu.(South Africa 2)
July 1, 2008... I first saw the photo on the website of the London Daily Telegraph: the colour picture of a man burning to death, with the yellow flames engulfing his clothes and body. The story beneath was about how South Africans had set upon African...

Xenophobic South Africans have a lot to learn.(South Africa 3)
July 1, 2008... Rarely ever mentioned in the discourse on the xenophobia against Zimbabweans in South Africa is Thabo Mbeki's revelation to Mark Gevisser (for his book, Thabo Mbeki--The Dream Deferred) "of how Zimbabwe voluntarily put its own land-reform...

Setting and scoring your goals: goals are stated ambitions; and all leaders know they must set them and follow them up till they are accomplished. For, failure to set goals reduces leadership to management by chance and hunches--a sure recipe for corporate disaster.(Nuggets in a Nutshell)
July 1, 2008... Leaders are familiar with goals. They are driven by them. Their change efforts are bent towards accomplishing them. Goals make leadership tick. Periodically, leaders sit down; think hard, size up the future to design goals that will help ensure...

Anti-corruption crusade tests Yar'Adua's resolve: President Musa Yar'Adua has replaced the controversial chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, with a female former police officer. What does this portend for the crusade against corruption? Does it mean a dumbing down or a search for new ways of fighting corruption? Lindsay Barrett went to find out in Abuja.(Nigeria)
July 1, 2008... One of the legacies that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua inherited from the Obasanjo government is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), established in 2002. However, the public perception of differences between the objectives...

Justice dilemma for poll victims: six months after the events which greeted President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election victory, a deepening disagreement on the issue of amnesty for suspects of the post-election violence is stalling the progress of Kenya's road to peace. From Nairobi Daniel Ooko analyses the current political glitches.(Kenya)
July 1, 2008... While all is now calm on the ground, the Kenyan authorities are still struggling to fully comply with all the issues on the roadmap to peace brokered by the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, which ushered in the current power-sharing...

Obama has cleared the way for black achievement.(Under the Neem Tree)(Barack Obama)
July 1, 2008... On 5 June 2008, The New York Times ran an article by Marcus Mabry which recorded the views of some Africans, as well as African-Americans, on the defeat, by Barack Obama, of Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic Party nomination. The...

The irresistible car for Africa: it is not every day you have the opportunity to drive and evaluate a choice of more than 30 different car models, but that is what was provided for at the Nissan 360 event at Cascais, Portugal. New African's Stephen Williams was there and took to the wheel.(Nissan)
July 1, 2008... Beyond doubt, Nissan's 360 event held in Portugal demonstrated that the company is one of the world's most "complete" car manufacturers. From its baby Micra model to every boy-racer's dream, the iconic 350Z roadster--and with a comprehensive...

Welcome to New African Woman.(Editorial)
July 1, 2008... Women are changing the future of Africa. For this reason, black women, particularly in Africa, are crying out to have their story heard. In an era drenched with women's publications of all sorts, the majority of African women still find it hard...

Sibongile Sambo flying high.(WOMEN WHO INSPIRE)
July 1, 2008... As founder and managing director of the first 100% black female-owned aviation company in Southern Africa, Sibongile Sambo's story of success is proof that women can achieve and succeed in any field including a male-dominated one. Her...

Black is beautiful, even Vogue admits.(FEATURE)
July 1, 2008... Africa and the black community at large, is a bastion of beauty. It is therefore a welcome shock that for the first time in its history, the fashion-bible Italian Vogue will controversially dedicate and feature only black models in its July...

Women of substance winning the battle of empowerment: in every community in Africa and its diaspora, there is a woman motivating other Africa women to succeed in their lives. Women are becoming indispensable contributors to the search for practical solutions and nation building. Bekwase Mwale-Adams reports on how for every positive change in Africa, there is a woman of substance behind it.(FEATURE)(Essay)
July 1, 2008... Even as the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF) held in Johannesburg last month launched the first ever Africa Gender Parity Group to collaborate ways to eradicate gender inequality and better engage women in the economy, many dynamic African...

African fashion "it's part of our culture": meet Alphadi (left)--real name Seidnaly Sidhamed Alphadi--the pillar of the creative world of African fashion. As one of Africa's best known male designers, he has made Africa proud in Europe, America and of course Africa itself, climbing many hurdles on his way up. His creations as seen on these pages, are breathtaking. Feriel Berraies Guigny profiles and interviews the icon.(FASHION & STYLE)(Interview)
July 1, 2008... Alphadi is the founder of the International Festival of African fashion (FIMA), and is also the chairman the Federation of African fashion designers (FAC). Through his African fashion events and the biannual FIMA, he has always strived for the...

Hair today, gone tomorrow? You can avoid hair breakage ...(HAIR & BEAUTY)
July 1, 2008... Whether it was a dodgy weave or not, the unflattering pictures of the usually super sleek black British supermodel Naomi Campbell, showing what looked like a bald patch, not only made international headlines, but were received with horror in...

The economic power of Africa's creativeness: diversification is the buzz word when talking about Africa's economic growth. Stephen Williams reports on how the continent's underexploited creative industries can offer new opportunities for Africa to leapfrog into new areas of the world economy.(Creative Industry)
July 1, 2008... According to a new UN study, there is huge potential in Africa's creative industries in terms of promoting economic growth and development. The study, entitled the Creative Economy Report 2008, is the first of its kind to investigate the...

First woman vice-president? For the first time in 51 years of its post-independence history, Ghana is likely to get a woman vice-presidential running mate in the upcoming December general elections. Stephen Gyasi Jnr reports from Accra.(Ghana)
July 1, 2008... Hajia Alima Mahama is a barrister at law and the current minister for women and children's affairs. A soft-spoken, affable lady liked by all, she is one of only four women in President John Kufuor's cabinet. And if the grapevine is any guide,...

An agent of positive change.(Liberia)(Jewel Howard Taylor)(Interview)
July 1, 2008... Liberia's former First Lady and now senator, Jewel Howard Taylor, is a woman of many parts. A former deputy governor of the central bank of Liberia, Senator Taylor was once a financial underwriter at the First Union National Bank of USA, and...

Sickle cell disease patients should beware of heroin pumps.(Sickle Cell)(Disease/Disorder overview)
July 1, 2008... A new report published by the UK's National Confidential Enquiry into Patient outcome and Death (NCEPOD) has raised concerns about the use of morphine and its derivatives in the care of sickle cell disease patients. The report's conclusions...

Becoming 'European': West Indian officers in British West Africa were categorised as "Europeans" by the colonial governments and given better salaries and working conditions than the "Natives". This is part one of a two part series exploring the fraught history of West Indian "European" colonial officers in British West Africa.(Lest We Forget)
July 1, 2008... If asked to quickly draw an image of a colonial officer in Africa, most of us would sketch a white man dressed in a stiff khaki uniform with a pith helmet shading him from the tropical sun. While our imaginary officer's size, shape, and apparel...

China may be right in Africa: by deviating from the West's democratic orthodoxy and emerging as an economic superpower nonetheless, China is a worry to the West because it fears that Chinese economic development and social progress, through a different, non-Western style, may be right for Africa, writes Prof Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, a professor at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) based in Shanghai, China.(Opinion)
July 1, 2008... In April, I boarded a taxi to commute home from the business school campus in Shanghai (where I teach innovation and marketing). The taxi driver asked me in Chinese, "Where do you come from?". I managed to reply in my broken Chinese, "I come...

No freedom from the 1807 Act: an error crept into our May article, "1807 Act commemoration--what did we achieve?" written by Kwaku. Here, he sets the records straight, and offers us even more: William Wilberforce was the Parliamentary champion of the 1807 Act, yet wrote that "it would be wrong to emancipate the slaves. To grant freedom to them immediately would be to ensure not only their masters' ruin, but their own.".(Opinion)
July 1, 2008... My original article published in May aimed to highlight the misinformation surrounding the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act enacted in 1807 by the British Parliament, and to make it clear that the said 1807 Act did not abolish enslavement or...

Stella is right.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I am an avid reader of your magazine, New African since December 2007. I saw it for the first time on the shelves of a pharmacy in Montego Bay on the north coast of Jamaica, and I have been reading it every month since then. Thank you very much...

Colonial thoughts.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... After reading Stella's column, I was shocked and horrified to find that old-colonial thoughts are alive and well in 2008. I have been living in the UK for the past 50 years (on and off), and always felt it was the other way round. On many...

As long as you are a black man ...(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Having grown up in London, I know and recognise all of the comments that Stella speaks about--"that African shop" and knowing "nothing about what is in Africa", all based on ignorance, the same ignorance that I have to correct other Ghanaian...

Not a bad thing.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Once again, Stella plucks at the raw nerves of the matter. One must forgive her, and praise her, for being so brave. One must follow her along the path she has taken to get to where her feelings, and our feelings, are. We are angry. We will...

No good painting with a broad brush.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... In her column, Stella Orakwue offers her first-hand knowledge of the "Black Skin, White Masks" (Franz Fanon) Jamaicans she knows. But her piece is incomplete because she offers no explanation as to why the group she writes about thinks in such...

'We ain't no Africans!'.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Stella, my "stupidities list" could be longer than yours! You think those Jamaicans you know in London are insufferable? Their ignorance only surpassed by their arrogance? How would you like teaching African-American high school students world...

I may have Jamaican uncles.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... Well, where do I start in response to Stella's column? I am aware that there is a divide between the brown-skinned people from Africa and the brown-skinned people from the West Indies--but check it out, even the term "the West Indies" is not...

Obama a life inside the American dream.(Barack Obama)
July 1, 2008... For the first time in American history, an African-American has clinched the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. If the gruelling six-month primaries campaign is any guide, Senator Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, will give George...

Nothing excels like excellence itself ... the remarkable story of Africa--and Africans (both continental and diasporan)--at the Olympic Games.
July 1, 2008... Africans will figure prominently among the medal-winners at the Beijing Olympic Games--that, together with death and taxes, is one of the very few certainties of life. Whether from the African continent or from the Diaspora, athletes of African...

An ode to New African: it is not often that a reader, impressed with the sustained good work of a publication, writes an eulogy embossed on an African map in its honour. On 13 June, New African got more than that from one of its many admirers in Nigeria.(Appreciation)
July 1, 2008... Anyi Madubuko is a brilliant artist who lives in Jos, Plateau State, in Nigeria. He is a young man with a fine taste for good journalism. Having been an avid reader of New African for many years, he felt the best way of expressing his...